Official Canadian Fan Club since 2007

ConcertWorks Presents: Tokio Hotel LIVE in Edmonton, and YOU can win tickets!

The iconic German band Tokio Hotel is back and bringing their highly acclaimed Dream Machine World Tour to Canada in 2018. ConcertWorksis giving you the chance to win a pair of tickets to their show in Edmonton, Alberta. The mega-rockstars will be hitting the stage at The Ranch Roadhouse on February 22.

Interested in boarding the Dream Machine? Here’s how you can win tickets:

Sharethis post on your Facebook page AND click the “going” button on the official event page http://bit.ly/2gq51nF. The winner will be chosen randomly from those who complete the above tasks. ConcertWorks, will contact the winner with details on where to pick up his or her tickets. You MUST be 18+ to attend the show.

With the documentary Hinter die Welt producer Oliver Schwabe succeeds to show what’s beyond the world of Tokio Hotel. The movie premiered at the film festival Cologne last week. In the lecture Beuys will be Beuys Bill Kaulitz talks about development, his fears and self-confidence.

The twin brothers Bill and Tom Kaulitz founded Tokio Hotel 17 years ago. Since 12 years they’re in the public eye. Bill Kaulitz reveals that nothing has changed within the band since then: “we were looking for a bass player and drummer, which would play the songs, Tom and I create.”

Nowadays the band still has the same working process, as the documentary reveals: Tom does the production works and creates new songs with Bill. Bill takes over all visual parts of the band, like light design, stage costumes and concepts for music videos, while Georg is responsible for live events, the booking and finances of the band.

“Georg couldn’t play bass at all.”

The fact that Bill and Tom choose Gustav Schäfer and Georg Listing as drummer and bass player is due to the fact that there weren’t much other possibilities in Magdeburg: “there were only these two guys.”

On top of that it wasn’t an obstacle for the twins that Georg was just learning to play the bass: “Georg couldn’t play bass at all. We all were really bad with our instruments. Bust Georg was just starting to learn playing the bass for six month. He couldn’t play at all.”

In the opposite to Georg, there was Gustav Schäfer who had to show his drum skills: “Gustav had to do something like a casting for us. We were in our rehearsal space and Gustav played a Phil Collins song, if I remember correctly. This is how he came into the band. This is how everything started.”

Bill Kaulitz: “Gustav loves to play drums. But sometimes he wishes that there would be a wall in front of him, so nobody would be able to see him.”

Today Bill remembers clearly that there was no other option for him than doing music: “Doing music was always a serious thing for Tom and me. Georg had a lot of other hobbies back then. He was playing handball. But Tom and I always knew: music is our life. Sure for Gustav and Georg it was amazing, when we released our music in 2005. They just accepted it as how it was. But for Tom and me this was always our number one plan… a total drive since we were kids. We never wanted to do something else.”

Kaulitz only sees one difference to when he looks back at the beginning of Tokio Hotel: “I just remember when we had our first performances when we were 13 years old. I was like: ok, give me a microphone! give me a stage! I want to go out there and perform.”
What Kaulitz doesn’t remember is how he formed his self-confidence at this time: “No idea where I got that from. I guess it came from the dynamic I have with Tom. We were always together. I knew I’m never alone.”

“There’s not one idiot who gives a fuck about you. That’s the best thing.”

Nowadays Kaulitz has a different perspective on his life. As he sees himself with a huge backpack, which is filled with fears and bad experiences which he made through the past. At the same time he works on getting back a little bit lightheartedness every day: “Bringing back the lightheartedness, which we had when we started as band, is a challenge which I try to master every day. We always rather want to go back. We want to get away from this music industry shit. At some point it gets to complicated and then you kind of lose your creativity. You’re not good anymore in the essence of what you really want to do – music.”

But Kaulitz manages to leave everything behind, as soon as he gets home after a tour: “Flying back home… going out and then there’s not one idiot who gives a fuck about you. That’s the best thing.”

At the same time Bill Kaulitz reveals that it was not always like that. When he moved to Los Angeles in 2010 he had to learn living life. Kaulitz remembers that his friends still make jokes about this time: “My friends are still teasing me with this. I remember the first time when I went out to party, I brought along a security guard and I always had a driver with me. In Los Angeles I continued to live the same life I was living in Germany. I just took it with me when we moved overseas, because I didn’t know another life.”

“people think it’s sexy nowadays. they’re like: she wants to have sex with girls and she wants boys and she also wants the people in between.”

Kaulitz already had to deal with press and media, asking him about his sexuality, when he was 15 years old: “In Germany it’s still a question. People are still wondering: “who is joining his bed tonight? Who does he have sex with? Who does he bring home? Who does he fall in love with?”. But these were always questions I never gave a clear answer to. I feel like I give a lot of answers in my songs though. But it’s still a thing which drives people crazy. Nowadays a coming out isn’t really exciting anymore, cause everybody does it. But people still keep asking me these questions. It still drives them crazy not to know who’s sleeping in my bed tonight and I love that.”

Some laughters appeared when host Steve Blade quoted Bill Kaulitz’s twin brother Tom from the documentary: “I get everything from Bill, which other people are searching for in a relationship. So basically I just need somebody for the sexual part. And that’s something you can easily find.” Steve Blade asked Bill if this is a healthy attitude: “I don’t know. I guess others have to judge if it’s healthy. We sometimes wonder the same. We’re like one person and sometimes we don’t get how we are and how others see us. When we’re lonely, we’re together feeling alone. It never happens that one of us is pushing the other one up. When we’re feeling depressed, we’re feeling sad together. Everything always happens together. That makes it of course hard for a partner. Especially for Tom it’s more difficult. When I’m in love, it can happen that I’m just gone from today to tomorrow. I tend to do my own things then.”

„Tom has to tell in which distance they need to place the barriers in front of the stage. And then you ask yourself: isn’t there somebody else to decide this?“

What producer Oliver Schwabe impressed the most about the band was their energy and effort which they put in all their work: “they’re control freaks, which I found really interesting. It happens that somebody calls Tom out of the wardrobe, because Tom has to tell in which distance they need to place the barriers in front of the stage. And then you ask yourself: isn’t there somebody else to decide this? No! It’s always Tom! And he does this every day during the tour for month. This is something which impressed me a lot.”

“ich muss durch den monsun, hinter die welt” these are the lines that made Bill Kaulitz and his band Tokio Hotel famous in 2005. At the same time producer Oliver Schwabe started to recognize Tokio Hotel and was fascinated by them: ‚what I really found interesting was that Bill combined all codes from subcultures, while he as person took place in mainstream media.‘

Guided by this fascination Oliver Schwabe tried to get in contact with the band. But he failed due to the success and high demand for Tokio Hotel: “I was working on a movie at this time and I tried to reach out to you [Bill]. But I wasn’t able to get in contact.”

Today, 12 years later, Oliver Schwabe and Tokio Hotel made the documentary Hinter die Welt (engl. title: beyond the world), which premiered at the Filmfestival Cologne. In the context of the lecture Beuys will be Beuys Bill Kaulitz and Oliver Schwabe talked about how they build mutual trust, about the developing process and how they used the movie to portrait the band.

“Stop talking. Just come over!”

Oliver Schwabe filmed Tokio Hotel during the past two years on their world tours, in the studio and in their very own environment. When they started talking about working together, Bill invited Oliver: “we had skype-sessions and then Bill suddenly told me: ‘stop talking. Just come over. Then you’ll see what’s possible’. Then I flew directly to Mexico. I arrived at night and I went back to the airport, at 6am in the morning, to see the band arriving.”
The teaser of Hinter die Welt shows what Oliver Schwabe experienced in this moment:

Bill Kaulitz: “It always felt like we’re in this together.”

For Tokio Hotel it was really clear early on that they wanted to do the documentary: “we knew that working with Oliver would be a team work. It always felt like we’re in this together. We wanted to do the movie because there are some misunderstandings. People kept talking about things. This was our chance to tell our own story and make things clear.”

Oliver Schwabe was aware that it’s not always easy to let a stranger into your own world, since he already dived into a lot of different world for other documentaries he produced. That’s why he offered Tokio Hotel to let them do the final inspection of the movie, with this agreement Oliver was able to build trust, while the team of Schwabe was critical about it: “my colleagues told me ‘are you nuts?’ when they heard about my agreement with the band.”

But the agreement of the final inspection gave Bill Kaulitz the feeling that he could let himself completely sink into the movie: “this was the final moment to say: ok, let’s do this. If it turns out crap, then that’s how it is. But if it won’t turn out crap, we will have a really good movie. And I believe we do have a really good movie.”

Another challenge Schwabe had to deal with was diving into the Tokio Hotel world while he accompanied the band at their feel it all tour in Russia in 2015. Not only to walk into their world, but to deeply dive into it and become a part of the world itself. Schwabe revealed that he not only met Tokio Hotel, when he started to film, he met a whole family instead. A family which was built over years to have the strength to master the past and very difficult situations. This is how he dealt with it: ‚when you meet them, you just burst into a family. It then takes a while, until you’re allowed to say something there. But I just waited. I waited until my time came.”

“This is like Peter Pan, like in a fairytale. You can see it in their eyes!”

After Schwabe became a part of the Tokio Hotel world, he continued to accompany the band to their Dream Machine tour in Cologne, Paris and Russia. In Russia Schwabe was especially inspired by the contrast between the country and the band: “that’s why I wanted to go to Russia again. It made a lot of sense to me to film there. For example in Novosibirsk where everything seems to be grey and where it’s stilll snowing even though it’s almost May. And then they come into the venue and it’s like Peter Pan, like in a fairytale. You can see it in their [fans] eyes! It’s a promise of a different world and this makes so much sense to me.”

Schwabe portraits not only the contrast of the different environments around the band, which are taking place in Magdeburg and Los Angeles. He also manages to show the opposition of the environment of the fans and how this suddenly changes when they see and meet Tokio Hotel. He produced a documentary in which he highlights not only the world beyond Tokio Hotel, but also different aspects, backgrounds and environments, by using impressive pictures of the different worlds. But the movie doesn’t only look at the band itself. He also takes a look at the band members. Gustav and Georg, which usually like to be in the background, talked about how they felt when Bill and Tom left Germany and what they thought about the mandatory break. Besides this Gustav and Georg visited Tokio-Hotel-wise historical places in their hometown Magdeburg, like the Gröninger Bad or their first rehearsal space. This way Schwabe succeeded to show one more world: the history of Tokio Hotel, which completes itself through memories and narrations of Gustav and Georg.

VIP packages for Tokio Hotel’s North American tour go on sale this Wednesday at 9am PT / 12pm ET. Here are some helpful tips for purchasing VIP tickets with Treehouse Ticketing if this is your first time!

Hello Canadian Tokio Hotel fans. I am super excited to have Tokio Hotel play 4 shows in our wonderful country! I honestly never thought they’d come back so it’s a very welcome surprise! I’ve never had the chance to see them live in Canada. I was only 13 the last time they were here and I lived in the shittiest province in Canada, Nofunswick (sorry not sorry). It was too far for me to travel at 13. Now, I’m able to finally see them live in my own country! I had the fortunate opportunity of seeing Dream Machine Part One in both London & Brussels and getting Humanoid + Scream Packages for the shows.

Many of you may be familiar with having a VIP package, if you purchased one for the Feel It All Tour 2015 in the US. Adventures in Wonderland, the company we bought those from made the…

Pictures: Photoshoot in Berlin, by Chris Gonz.

Tokio Hotel:“We really don’t want to put up with music industry bullshit”

Earlier this year, consistent German quartet Tokio Hotel put out the fresh and divisive Dream Machine. Having billed it as their most ambitious and daring record to date, frontman Bill Kaulitz and his men trekked the world in pursuit of putting on the perfect live show, one which complemented the new music as pristine as possible. We called up Kaulitz to discuss the record, its live show and where on earth they’ll go next.

Hey Bill. How are you doing?

I’m good, thank you! How are you?

I’m good too, thanks! Your most recent studio album, Dream Machine, came out this year. Can you tell me more about how you approached it, particularly in comparison to previous records?

On this album we were far freer to do whatever we wanted. We didn’t want to talk to any record labels or management companies, and we cut out everyone along the way, producers included. We wanted to go back to the basics and just rely on our instincts to create something that made us happy. Tom (Kaulitz) and I went into the studio to write the first demos, and then we spent a full year recording it. We did everything on our own, and nobody else was involved. It was the first time that we’d done it like this, and it ended up being the album we always wanted to write. Afterwards, we played it to people to see who wanted to be involved, and who our best partner could be. We did it the other way round, basically. We were super happy with Dream Machine, and I’m personally still very excited about it.

After you finished the album, you switched from Universal Music to Starwatch. How did that come about?

So basically, Starwatch already wanted to talk to us even before the album, right after our ten years with Universal Music has ended. We were happy to be free as a band and talk to whoever we wanted, but with Starwatch we just weren’t ready to talk to them yet. We went and made the music first, and once we were comfortable we had a talk. Markus from Starwatch told us to just take our time. When we were ready, we flew out to speak with him, but before he even heard the record he decided to offer us a contract. He told us he was a big fan and that he had a lot of confidence. Luckily he was happy once he did hear the album!

Later this year you’ll be bringing your live show back to Europe. What can we be expecting this time round from a live production sense?

We started touring Dream Machine in March this year, and we’ve always liked to put on a show. We even try to do stuff that hasn’t been done before when we play in smaller club venues. We always want to entertain people and give them a show that they’ll never forget. Everything we do with Tokio Hotel is big, and this time round we’re doing encore shows because the first run was so successful that people wanted us to do it again. There was huge demand. We’ll probably play a couple of new songs and mix up the set to keep it interesting for us, and there will also be a very big production with special effects, lights and costume changes. There’s always a vision in our heads for either a video or live show, and when we prepare to tour we pick our favourite new songs and attempt to create a show which both the old and new fans will like. Some people grew up with the old stuff and want to hear that, and other people come to hear the new stuff as they discovered us later on. They don’t even know the old songs. We always try to create a live show that’s exciting for everyone, even us. Sometimes there are songs that we’ve played so often that it starts to get boring; it’s like having a hit song everyone loves that you don’t want to change too much about. There’s a very fine line, and on this tour we’re going to pretty much play every new song.

Did you go into the studio for Dream Machine with a particular live show in mind, or did you approach it the other way round?

On our older album tours, we had such a big production that it was pretty challenging for us. We were scared with this live show, because the previous one was already quite over the top in itself. We wondered how we could make it even better, because the bar had already been set pretty high. Dream Machine is far dreamier and way more playful, and it’s not as hard as the previous record. Our lighting guy and set designer for the previous tours both stayed with us, which is because we like to keep the same people involved all the time. We sat down with them and tried to create something dreamier, something different. I think that we did a good job, and I feel like it’s the best show we’ve ever put together. We enjoy ourselves a lot.

You’ve come a long way since your heavier beginnings. Do you ever have the desire to go back to that style of music and potentially incorporate it more into your current electronic sound?

The thing is, songs like Monsoon are so different to what we do now. It’s almost fifteen years old! The band has changed so much musically, so there’s a very fine line involved when it comes to changing the songs in a way that fits the current live set and what we do today musically. We also want to keep everything authentic and to the point of what a song is about. Sometimes we twist it, but the boys just play so many instruments at the moment. Tom rarely plays the guitar anymore, to be honest. There’s only three musicians in the band, but there are also a lot of different sounds. We rehearse a lot, and we always want to play everything. On some songs we’ve worked with seven different laptops, and we really do our best to play all of that live and process it just like we did on the record. There’s a lot of preparation involved.

So would you consider yourselves more of a live band, as opposed to a studio band?

I think we enjoy both, to be honest. Tom particularly enjoys being in the studio, and he’ll be in there every day writing and producing different things. He likes to be in the background a lot. As a band, we like both sides, as we all like writing songs. I really like being onstage after a while, because I just need to perform and be out there. I love being onstage, so I feel like I’m the pushiest when it comes to that. I love the process of creating a live show, but Tom not so much. He prefers being in the studio, but on the whole I think we’ve always been a live band.

Have you got any idea of in which direction you’d like to take your music in the coming years?

I think we’ve totally found our sound Dream Machine, and I believe this is the signature of what Tokio Hotel is. It’s the most authentic record we’ve ever made, as nobody else was involved at all during the process. We might collaborate with writer and producer friends along the way, but we really like how we did it on this record. We only want to have fun, and as we’re in this stage of our careers we really don’t want to put up with music industry bullshit. We don’t want to compromise with anything, and we’re not hunting for commercial hits anymore. It’s all about our music and the accompanying live show, and it means something to us. Direction and genre-wise, new music is really going to sound a lot like Dream Machine.

Your breakthrough was in 2005. For five years you’ve been totally into it and gave your all but after that, you went to LA, fully exhausted. Which period fulfilled you the most?

Bill: The current period. The older you get, the more you realize the madness. It felt like a trance when we were teenagers. For me, the current period feels better. When you are younger, you take things more easily. Today, things are more difficult. Working a whole day isn’t as easy as it used to be when we were younger. After a tour, we are already ready for holidays. As a young man, you also have less fears. However, when it comes to creativity, the band is much better than it was.

How was it when you moved to Los Angeles?

Bill: We didn’t do anything for a year. At 20 years old, we simply wanted to have a normal life. We hadn’t been existing as people outside the band all those years before.

When the success came, did music labels or others affect you?

Bill: We’ve always had an authority problem. We always had to fight to take part in the decision-making process. The label didn’t like us; we were always the complicated band. Nevertheless, due to our success, it was okay. The band existed before, it was our baby. We wanted to control everything. Anyway, we had to arrange ourselves with Major-Label, etc. It was really nice with the current album; we did everything on our own. Writing, producing…

Back then, when there was the extreme fan-hype, some fans exceeded the limits. Breaking into your house was the highlight. Did you lose respect in people?

Bill: At least we had the feeling that we did not belong anywhere. You are far away from humans. I didn’t like that. I love it to be around people.

Do you learn to deal with pressure in extreme situations? Does that shape character?

Bill: We always wanted to have responsibilities. We were only 15 when we moved out of home to have our own apartment; we set up a company, and sat around with lawyers and tax consultants all the time. But the older we got, the more we wanted to let go of the backpack.

Tom: It would have been better if we had not taken so many responsibilities back then. We always took too much, also during school time.

Bill: You want to cope with success the older you get. Going on stage is not easy-going anymore, not as it was at 14. I always have to take back the easiness. That’s what we did with the new album, back in the roots of when it was only about music. That’s why we’ve produced everything on our own — without any label or management. Thankfully, we were at a point in our career where having fun mattered. We want to make things we want to do, far away from the music industry.

Was there a point where you were aware of making history — especially for people? We do connect moments and phases/stages with songs.

Tom: You realize that when people tell you their stories. Today, you realize it even more than before. We totally missed that.

Bill: You are so overwhelmed. When a fan stands in front of you and starts crying, so much energy comes together. I was exhausted after hearing those stories.

How was it when you became millionaires? Does that change character or does it only makes it stronger?

Bill: Money does things to people. I like it how money can give you something like freedom. We did not want to be dependent on someone, even not when we were younger. Our pocket money was like a budget that we managed.

Tom: Now we do whatever we want with our money.

Bill: Money must be fun. I want to experience and live. We should probably be more careful. But, for example, we invest a lot in our career. Expensive videos, expensive productions and performances. Most of our money is spent on Tokio Hotel.

You never wanted to follow the rules. Is that kinda part of the success, breaking the rules?

Tom: You get the best ideas in emergency situations. For example, if you don’t like what producers make with your music, it’s probably better when you do it on your own. If you are unhappy with a situation, you get good solutions from it.

Bill: I can’t imagine a life without breaking the rules.

Bill, as a lead singer, did you have role models?

Bill: My stepfather showed me the movie Labyrinth with David Bowie. That man really inspired me. I even had the same hair. I also listened to Nena. But I never had that kind of role model whose poster was on my wall. But of course, several artists inspired me.

Is there someone you want to meet/get to know?

Bill: Unfortunately, they are all dead. Bowie, Prince… They were extraordinary. I’d like to meet Depeche Mode; they are really cool.

The new album “Dream Machine” is more electro. Did you change or did the fans want something new?

Tom: If you ask the fans, they would have been happy if we had done the same thing Avril Lavigne has been doing for like 40 years now; the same music. That would have also been the easy way. Finacially, it would have been interesting as well. But we have never made decisions according to money. We just changed as humans.

Bill: I could show you so many emails in which people write that we are committing career-suicid. But we don’t want to do it like Avril Lavigne or Pink, who are still doing the same music as they used to make in the beginning.

Tom: We don’t have a dividing line between business and life. We are our music. We don’t go “to work”. It’s all the same. Our music reflects.

You once mentioned that you want to open a nightclub. Why?

Bill: Because we like to party. I always felt attracted to nightlife. Also people’s abysses. I have always wanted to play a junkie in a movie. I like to watch live how people fall out of their roles. Everyday life sucks. I want to experiment. When we go out at night, we bring about twenty people together, who don’t know each other. That’s why we want to open a nightclub. Preferably in LA. There, they don’t have the nightlife we have here (in Berlin).

In case you’ve missed all of our messages on social media, Tokio Hotel will finally be back to Canada in February 2018, after almost 10 years (well, 9 years and a half to be exact)!

The band gave us a list with all the cities they are going to play in on Facebook a few days ago, including cities from all North America and Latin America. Next year will definitely be a great year for the band!

Though when releasing the cities, they didn’t release the dates. So today has been something like a scavenger hunt as the band hasn’t said anything, yet the venues all seemed to release info (and TICKETS) today. So fans had to find everything on their own. Things are still confusing, as Vancouver and Berkeley have been announced for the same date (i.e. Feb. 24th). However, Vancouver makes more sense for this date considering they’ll be in Edmonton on the 22nd, and that they’re also going to Seattle before heading to Berkeley.

So here’s what we know for now about the Canadian dates… Another article will follow soon when all other dates are released (and confirmed by the band). However you can already buy your tickets for Montreal, Toronto, Edmonton and Vancouver.

As a reminder, if you’re interested in meeting the band, you STILL need to get a ticket even if you plan on buying a VIP package later. VIP packages are something you buy on the side, and they will be refused at the door if you don’t have a ticket to attend the concert as well. So make sure you get one now! Don’t miss your chance to see and/or meet the band!

PS.The website will be updated tomorrow afternoon/evening and Facebook events will be created. Now that the band is coming back for real, we’ll keep you up to date as much as possible from now on! If you think you can help with promotion and projects for any of these dates, you can send an e-mail to thcanada.streetteam@gmail.com.

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Hi! I’m Lauriane

I am the leader of Tokio Hotel's Official Canadian Fanclub. You can count on me to provide the latest information on Tokio Hotel.

This Fan Club was approved by Universal Music Canada in 2007.

If you have any problem, or have any question concerning the Fan Club or Tokio Hotel, it will be my pleasure to answer you as soon as I can! Just send me an e-mail (in English, French, German, Spanish or Italian) at thcanada.streetteam@gmail.com . I usually reply on the same day, or on the next day. It doesn't bother me if your question concerns something that happened in the past; I've been in this fandom since 2006 and I really hope I can help you.

If you are in Canada or in the United States and need more information, like a phone number or an address, please send me an e-mail at thcanada.streetteam@gmail.com and I will give you, if possible, my contact info.